The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-18
TRADES IN MEXICO.
SINGULAR CRAFTS PURSUED IN
THE STREETS.
Beautiful Pottery and jewelers. Fine
Work-Chcapness of Gold-Rag-
Baby Making n Mexican
Weaver - Trade Secrets.

silversmithing, blacksmithing and car
pentering. Among the manufactures
those of iron, steel, glass and peculiar
kind of pottery are celebrated all over
the republic. Indeed, the fame OF
"Guadalajara pottery is world vide
The uueerest designs of carafes, odd
water Jugs with two spouts or one, jars,
mugs, pitchers with long noses and stubby
handles, etc., made Of baked clay, highly
glazed, with black, pale gray or dark
red ground, painted with impossible
flowers or figures, which according to
Scripture it would be no sin to wor-
ship, all quaint enough to rank
high in any collection OF ceramics.
When new this ware imparts to the water
it contains strange flavor, which is
greatly relishcd by Mexicans, but as much
disliked by most other people:
The gayest of serapes and the hnest OF
rebesos are also manufactured hereabout
also paper and printed calico. The fh-
gree work of the Guadalaiara jewellers
Is simply wonderful, and hay be seen
any day in every stage of progress, be-
cause in all tropical countries, as in the
far East, the majority of work
men follow their avocations IN the open
air. The gold and silvcrsmiths ply their
intricate trade outside their little shops,
on the street corners, anywhere, undis-
turbed by the dust and confusion around
them. They make exquisite bits OF Or
namentation of the gold known in com
merce as Etruscan, meaning the dark,
rich. reddish-yellow variety. These
works are much more popular in Europe
than on this continent, and across the
Atlantic no collection of jewels or orna-
ments is considered complete without a
set of Mexican filigree work. 1t is not
at all like the Fiorentine or Venetian, and
is made after an entirely different plan.
The threads of precious metal are beaten
to infnitesimal fineness, twelve wires OF
gold twisted together making thread
no thicker than No. "a spool cotton. The
wires are all carefully traced on sketches
or patterns, and the delicate manner IN
which each wire is soldered to the other
is one of the marvcls of human skill.
From earliest days the Mexicans have
been adopts in this kind of workmanship,
but 80 behind the times are latter-day
artificers that in improvident Mexico hu-
man labor counts for next to nothing,
and a skilled workman will toll for weeks
over delicate toy which sells for few
shillings.
The precious metal being here so plen-
tiful. because of the remarkable richness
of the surrounding sierras, ornaments Of
pure gold and silver are common among
the poorest people-from great hoops IN
their ears to cigarette cases in their
pockets. At every street corner are little
stands where genuine treasures, IN the
way of antique jewclry or exquisite
specimens of filigree work, may be bought
for song. There arc bracelets, neck
laces, combs, earrings, cruci6xes; in
short, every imaginable device-some set
with the beautiful opals of Querclara, or
pearls from the California gulf; or topaz,
amethyst, garnets or ''cats'-eyes" from
other portions of Mexico.
The Guadalajaran wood-carvers are also
famed for the beauty of their workman
ship. In hundred little shops we find
swarthy workmen patiently carving bits
of wood into wonderful rosaries, every
bead of which shows miniature picture
of some scriptural scene-heads which
are really perfect portraits for the tips of
canes and umbrellas, rings, boxes, cigar
cite cases, buttons, etc. The cane-carv-
ers. who have over 200 varieties of rich
native wood to choose from, produce
some wonderful sticks; and many of the
most expensive umbrella and parasol
handles known to commerce are wrought
by these unknown and poorly paid work
men.
One has chance to study good
many quaint trades in this land of "The
Fair God," jealously guarded by the
Mexicans, having been handed down
through successive generations from In
dian ancestors, who practiced them CEN
turies before the coming of Cortez.
Among the most curious is the pottery
making, in which the native "throwers, :"
or moldcrs, by mere twist Of the hand,
turn of the wrist, or twirl of the fin
gers, form the yielding clay into the
oldest shapes.
Still more interesting is the craft Of
making perfectly life-likc miniature fig
ures ont of rags-an art which has exist
ed in Mexico at least five hundred years.
Dickens's Jenny Wren, the dolls dress
maker, finds many a prototype In
Guadalaiara, for hundreds of native
women spends their lives in making
clothes for these rag figures, in the most
accurate and particular manner possible.
The rag-fgure maker is an artist in his
way, and produces perfect likenesses of
men, women and children, representing
all callings and classes in Mexico-from
ragged lepiros to senoritas of fashion,
sandal-shod water-carriers and poultry
vendors, elegantly attircd caballcros or
gentlemen of leisure, nuns, priests and
servants.
Like the occidental nations, Mexico
has manufacture of textile fabrics pecu-
liarly its own. The Mexican weaver Of
silk and cocoa goods uses loom resem-
bling nothing ever seen north of the Rio
Grande-a primitive and clumsy affair,
yet which turns out good work. As nc
village. however poor, is without its
reboso and serape manufacturer, one may
sec scores of them in operation in almost
any street of Guadalajara.
One has only chance to study the In
senuity of the wax workers, who are
eternally fashioning fruits and flowers;
'large as life and twice as NATURAL" as
Mrs. Partington observed of the stuffed
crocodile. Ask one of these dark-skinned
. workmen for an apple or an orange, and